Enhanced economic integration is needed to make North America more competitive against other world trading blocs, Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa said at a March 3 public forum co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Council of the Americas. In his prepared remarks, Calderón stressed the deep economic interdependence that exists between the United States and Mexico and noted that one million U.S. families are employed by Mexican-owned companies.

No doubt about it, 2010 was not a good year for Mexico. After setting new records for cartel-related violence, it’s hard to imagine 2011 could be much worse. While reversing this trend will be extremely difficult, here are three things the Mexican and U.S. governments can do to help make this a better year for Mexico and, by extension, the United States.

The joint research project, Shared Responsibility: U.S.-Mexico Policy Options for Confronting Organized Crime, concludes that binational efforts to stop organized crime in Mexico have made progress but need expanded cooperation to address the challenge.

During Mexican President Felipe Calderón's recent state visit to Washington, immigration and trade were on the agenda. Recent publications by the Mexico Institute may interest those who follow these and other issues in the bilateral relationship.

Context—geographic, institutional, and otherwise—plays a determinant role in Latino immigrant integration, a new report by the Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute argues. The report, Context Matters: Latino Immigrant Civic Engagement in Nine U.S. Cities, examines the local factors shaping the political patterns and practices of a key bloc of the United States' fastest-growing minority.